A brand new method to management qubits

A analysis group that features two UO physicists have outlined new methods for controlling the constructing blocks of quantum computing, a doubtlessly vital step towards making such computer systems extra correct and helpful.

Physicists David Allcock and David Wineland are founders of the brand new Oregon Ions Laboratory, which was lately arrange within the basement of Willamette Hall. They are amongst 12 authors of a brand new paper, which relies on an experiment on the National Institute for Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. Both scientists beforehand labored on the Colorado lab and continued to collaborate on the challenge after coming to the UO in 2018.

The methods, described within the journal Nature, contain the usage of trapped-ion quantum bits, or qubits, in quantum computing and simulations. They may result in enhancements within the operation of quantum computer systems, which nonetheless make too many computation errors to be efficient instruments, the physicists mentioned.

The drawback with quantum computer systems is that their logic gates—the instruments used to carry out fundamental logic capabilities in computing—”are really bad,” Allcock mentioned.

“They fail about 1 percent of the time,” he mentioned. “You can do about 100 (operations), then you get garbage out.”

Wineland added, “The whole field is in a stage now, because of errors that exist, that we can’t do lengthy calculations or simulations of practical value on our machines.”

The purpose is to get to 10,000 operations with out error after which add layers of checks to repair the errors as they occur, he mentioned.

“We want to get to that point,” Allcock mentioned. “Then you can use quantum computers for something useful. Right now they’re just toys.”

Wineland mentioned trapped ions are like a bowl of marbles which have sure magnetic properties. Physicists can apply forces to the ions with totally different strategies, together with lasers, Allcock mentioned. But lasers are costly and complicated machines, whereas making logic gates utilizing magnetic forces is cheaper and extra sensible as a result of they are often generated immediately with built-in circuits, he mentioned.

“What we did here is show these techniques work as well as anyone has done logic gates before,” he mentioned.

Google and IBM are among the many industrial enterprises which have armies of engineers engaged on such issues, whereas tutorial physicists try to indicate there are higher, extra fundamental methods for fixing them.

“We’ve shown you can do it in a technically simpler way,” he mentioned.

If physicists and engineers could make quantum computer systems dependable and capable of function with giant sufficient capability, they might simulate different programs, Wineland mentioned. For instance, a quantum laptop may simulate the motion of a molecule utilized in drug remedy with out having to synthesize it in a lab.

“There are some very practical, useful outcomes,” Wineland mentioned. “We’re just scratching the surface.”